Parchment to the rescue!

Square

Jeweler’s dilemma: the words engraved inside tiny heart lockets are too small to read. The lines are so thin and shallow they can’t be filled with contrasting material. Paper isn’t water resistant and is too fragile. Is there a solution?

tiny heart lettering

writing tiny messages with crow quill pen

parchment inserts for lockets

tiny heart lettering

parchment inserts ready for gold lockets

magnifying visor

Tada! I discovered that parchment (animal skin, in this case from a sheep) with permanent black Sumi ink written using the tiniest crow quill pen met all the requirements.

Except that each heart had to be tediously hand cut to fit inside the depression after it was lettered!